Bob Hope's career in broadcasting spanned sixty-four years and included a long association with NBC. Hope made his network radio debut in 1937 on NBC. His first regular series for NBC Radio was the Woodbury Soap Hour. A year later The Pepsodent Radio Show Starring Bob Hope began, and would run through 1953. Hope did many specials for the NBC television network in the following decades and these were often sponsored by Chrysler and Hope served as a spokesman for the firm for may years. Hope's Christmas specials were popular favorites and often featured a performance of "Silver Bells" (from his 1951 film The Lemon Drop Kid) done as a duet with an often much younger female guest star (such as Olivia Newton-John or Brooke Shields). His final television special was in 1996 with Tony Danza helping Hope present a retrospective about presidents of the United States.



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Reviewer: bgrauman - - March 8, 2011
Subject: The early Hope
These programs give an interesting insight into the development of Bob Hope's radio career, just before he became "the serviceman's jester" in World War II, tailoring his program and material virtually towards them.

Bob's "PEPSODENT SHOW" continued through 1948- then Lever Brothers, worried about a slight decline in his ratings, shifted him to another of their products, Swan soap {"THE NEW SWAN SHOW STARRING BOB HOPE"}, slightly revamping his format [eliminating Jerry Colonna, adding Doris Day as his vocalist, et. al.], sustaining him through 1950. Then, because of a dispute concerning the taping of his program in advance, they ended their sponsorship. Liggett & Myers' Chesterfield cigarettes became his new sponsor in the fall of 1950 (with Bob bringing Colonna back by early '51). Then, General Foods {Jell-O} became his sponsor in January 1953 (while sustaining his daily 15 minute show at the same time), followed by the American Dairy Association that fall. But more people were beginning to watch television than listen to radio in the early '50s, and Hope's audience slowly declined. When Jack Benny announced his "retirement" from radio to concentrate on his TV show in early 1955, Bob decided to follow his lead, and did his last radio show in April 1955.